out of time

Chapter 19
In the scavengers' camp, besides the necessities of survival, most of them are meat.

Because the forbidden zone is nearby, scavengers go there every day, so edible meat is sold at many stalls in the camp.

So after hearing that Xu Qing wanted to eat snakes, Team Lei smiled heartily on his wrinkled face.

He understood that the reason why the other party said to eat snakes was because the words he said at the beginning had obviously been firmly remembered by the child in front of him.

So he stopped Xu Qing from going out to buy meat.

"The group of people in the camp are all cunning. You don't know much about exotic beasts in the restricted area. You are easy to be deceived. If there is a case of forced buying and selling, let me go." Team Lei said and stood up.

Hearing the words "strong buy and strong sell", Xu Qing touched his iron sign subconsciously, and said seriously after thinking.

"They won't."

Lei Dui glanced at the iron sign, laughed dumbfoundedly, walked out of the yard without saying a word.

Looking at the figure of Team Lei, Xu Qing thought for a while, went to the side room, cleaned the pots and bowls inside carefully, arranged and wiped the table, and finally prepared three sets of bowls and chopsticks and put them on it. Xu Qing suddenly understood something.

"That's someone who will never come." The words of Team Lei once came to his mind. In silence, he put the third tableware next to Team Lei's tableware.

The same goes for chairs.

After doing this, Xu Qing turned his head and looked at the yard outside the door. It was already dusk, the wind was blowing a bit cold, and there seemed to be some snowflakes in it.

In the season at the end of March, for the eastern part of Nanhuangzhou, although the earth is warming up and everything is recovering, winter seems to be very unwilling. Occasionally, snowflakes will be scattered, trying to tell everything that it has not left.

At this moment, snowflakes fluttered under the gray sky and were blown down by the wind.

It seems to have fallen from the sky to the earth, and at the same time spread the earth, it was melted rapidly by the ground temperature.

In the end, all you could see was mud all over the ground.

No matter how noble the place you come from, no matter how clean you are, in this human world, you still have to mix with the silt and blend into it, regardless of each other.

I don't know whether the wind contains the snow and makes it colder, or the snow infects the wind and makes it colder.

Xu Qing felt a little cold as the air blew across the ground, the camp, and the bamboo courtyard houses.

Although he is a monk, the fear of the cold accumulated over the years from the depths of his memory still made him feel a little uncomfortable in the freezing cold.

Until in this cold wind, he saw a shambling figure coming from a distance against the wind and snow, and pushed open the door of the yard. The moment the figure appeared, a voice broke through the wind and snow with laughter.

"Child, you are lucky today. Look at what I bought. This is a safflower snake. The meat quality of this snake is excellent. I will show you later."

Team Lei carried a snake corpse and walked into the side room with big strides.

After noticing the cleanliness of the side room, the placement of tables and chairs and the bowls and chopsticks, especially the two pairs side by side, Team Lei smiled on his wrinkled face and looked deeply at Xu Qing. glance.

"Want to learn how to burn snakes?" Team Lei asked.

"Think." Xu Qing's eyes lit up, he was very eager for all the knowledge he didn't know, especially the snake cooked by Team Lei, it was delicious.

Team Lei smiled and called Xu Qing to his side, making introductions while making.

"This snake, it is reasonable to cut off the head and remove the tail, but those people don't know that the snake's tail has an excretory opening, so it must be removed, but as long as the snake's head is treated with poison, it can affect the taste of the whole snake. Play a role in refreshing."

Team Lei was very happy when he talked about cooking.

Xu Qing listened very seriously, watching Team Lei clean the snake, peel it and take out the internal organs and other sundries, then chop it into pieces and put it aside.

"Children, please remember that whether the meat has an aftertaste in your mouth or not depends on the soup."

As he said that, Team Lei started to cook soup in a casserole. He also put a lot of medicinal materials into the soup, and he threw the snake head that was finally processed into it.

After finishing these, Xu Qing swallowed with the fragrance, and Team Lei looked at him, laughed, took out the cleaned pot, and started to stir-fry the snake meat.

In an instant, as the crackling sound echoed, bursts of rich aroma rushed towards the face with heat waves, filled the entire side room, and wafted out at the same time.

It seemed to dispel all the coldness, causing Xu Qing's stomach to make an uncontrollable gurgling sound. Looking at the tumbling snake meat, his eyes were a little straight.

Soon, as Team Lei cooked, he put the stir-fried snake meat into the casserole, and when the lid fell off, he looked at Xu Qing.

"Have you learned it yet?"

Xu Qing stared at the casserole and nodded vigorously. He saw the whole process and thought it was not difficult.

Lei Dui smiled slightly, and when he came back from the side room, he was holding two jugs in his hand, one was thrown to Xu Qing, the other was held by himself, and he sighed in admiration after taking a sip.

"There is no shortage of meat in the camp, but this wine is a rare commodity."

Xu Qing picked up the flagon and looked at the cloudy liquid inside. He had never drunk alcohol.

As Team Lei said, this is a rare item, not found in the slums, only the big men in the city can taste it.

But seeing Team Lei enjoying his drink, Xu Qing hesitantly put it on his lips. After taking a sip, he frowned slightly, feeling that his mouth was full of spicy, but he swallowed it anyway.

A stream of heat emerged directly from his throat, flowed down the esophagus into his stomach, and then exploded violently, spreading throughout his body, turning into a stream of breath that poured into his mouth, causing him to open his mouth and let out a breath of alcohol.

"It's not good." Xu Qing looked at Team Lei.

Team Lei laughed loudly when he heard this, pointed at Xu Qing, and spoke with a smile.

"You are still too young to taste wine. When you grow up, you will definitely like it."

As Team Lei said, he was about to take the jug from Xu Qing, but Xu Qing dodged it.

"I'll try again." Xu Qing said seriously, and took another sip. Although his brows were still furrowed, he got used to the strange taste.

And not long after, under Team Lei's good-natured ridicule for Xu Qing's drinking, the snake meat healed.

When he put the casserole on, the moment the lid was opened, the aroma spread directly, Xu Qing's Adam's apple moved involuntarily, and he put down the wine pot. After Team Lei picked up a piece first, Xu Qing poked out a piece with his chopsticks and put it on the Mouth gulp.

He still couldn't change his habit of wolfing down food.

In this way, in the wind and snow outside, the old and the young in the house drank wine and ate meat at the same time, and the meaning of warmth permeated.

Looking at Xu Qing holding the chopsticks in an awkward posture, Team Lei's eyes showed softness, and he murmured in his heart.

"After all, I'm a child, but it's a pity... living in this cruel world."

At this moment, the wind and snow blowing outside, because there are gaps in the structure of the house, still got in and landed on Xu Qing's body. Although he was sweating from eating, he still resisted the cold wind, slightly shrunk back.

This subtle move fell into Team Lei's eyes, and he thought about it, but didn't say anything.

After a while, Xu Qing imitated Team Lei and drank a big gulp of wine again. After exhaling the alcohol, he looked at the old man in front of him who had brought him out of the ruined city and placed him here, and suddenly spoke.

"Your injury..."

"It's okay, I've survived for so many years, how can I die so easily, it's okay."

Xu Qing was silent. He originally wanted to ask Team Lei about the abolishment of the foundation, but he remembered the scene in the restricted area, and finally didn't ask.

After eating this meal for a long time, until Captain Lei drank the jug in his hand, he stood up, his eyes were a little hazy, and went back to the house.

Looking at his figure, Xu Qing clearly felt that Team Lei had a kind of aura from before, which seemed to dissipate with the return of the penalty area this time.

Xu Qing was silent. After a while, he stood up, cleared the dining table, washed the pots and bowls and put them away neatly, and then returned to his house.

Sitting on the bed, he looked up at the wind and snow outside the window, shrank back, and took out Captain Blood Shadow's leather bag that he picked up in the restricted area.

Although there is no elixir inside, there are a lot of spiritual coins and a lot of sundries, so Xu Qing checked it.

In the end, a black glove was taken out. This glove is not like leather, but has a metallic texture.

After trying it, Xu Qing found that it was very resilient and had good protection, so he put it on and punched it a few times, and felt that it was not bad, so he took it off, closed his eyes and meditated, and began to breathe.

Silent all night.

At dawn, the wind and snow were still falling, but it slowed down a lot. It was just a night of freezing cold, so that after the snowflakes fell to the ground, they could finally exist for some time.

So when Xu Qing walked out of the house, he saw snow marks on the ground.

Xu Qing tightened his clothes, glanced at Team Lei's residence, and walked out of the yard. He felt that he should do something, such as buying some white pills for Team Lei.

So after walking out, Xu Qing stepped on the snow, and with the sound of creaking, he walked towards the grocery store.

When passing by the tent of Master Bai's motorcade, Xu Qing heard the faint sound of boys and girls reading from the tent, which made him stop and glance enviously.

After taking it back for a while, Xu Qing turned her head silently and walked towards the grocery store.

As it approached, from a distance, Xu Qing saw a little girl outside the grocery store, who was cleaning up the snow marks vigorously. Her clothes were a little thin, her little hands were red with cold, and there was mist coming out of her mouth.

After not seeing each other for several days, the little girl seemed to have adapted to the life in the camp. Although she was very tired, she cleaned very seriously.

Even though the snow was still falling, she still cleaned it, except for the scar on her face that ruined her face, which was somewhat obvious in the morning sun.

When Xu Qing approached, the little girl noticed something. When she looked up and saw Xu Qing, her eyes lit up and a happy smile appeared on her face.

"Morning."

"Morning..." Xu Qing was not used to this kind of greeting, nodded and looked into the grocery store.

Maybe it was just dawn, or maybe it was the weather, so there was no one inside, and neither was the store owner.

"What do you want to buy, I'll get it for you." The little girl said with a smile.

"Bai Dan." Xu Qing looked at the little girl.

Hearing this, the little girl leaned the broom in her hand against the wall beside her, and after taking Xu Qing into the shop, she ran to the counter and rummaged through it, quickly took out several leather bags, opened them, looked at them, and put them back again .

After a while, she took out another one and handed it to Xu Qing.

"My boss stipulates that we can only sell five a day, so we can't sell more." The little girl looked at Xu Qing with some guilt.

Xu Qing could understand. After taking the leather bag, he opened it and scanned it, his eyes were slightly condensed.

He noticed that the quality of the white pills in the leather bag was much better than the one he had bought before, even three of them were not blue at all, and there was a faint medicinal fragrance coming out.

Thinking of the little girl's actions before, Xu Qing raised her head and looked over.

"It's nothing, it's within my authority." The little girl blinked and said with a smile.

Xu Qing took a deep look at the little girl.

"Thank you."

"You don't have to thank me for this little thing. I still want to thank you. If it weren't for you, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to live today."

The little girl smiled brightly, and there seemed to be light in her eyes. After she finished speaking, she seemed to think of something, and she spoke in a low voice while sending Xu Qing out.

"I heard from my boss yesterday that during this period of time, many young people in the camp have disappeared in the restricted area, and judging by his expression, it seems that it is not caused by the danger of the restricted area itself, but more like man-made... you Watch out for yourself."

There was concern in the little girl's eyes, which made Xu Qing a little uncomfortable, he stepped back a few steps, nodded, thanked and left.

Not far away, Xu Qing turned around and looked at the figure of the little girl continuing to sweep the snow and the scar on her face under the sun.

He suddenly thought of what Team Lei said, there is a stone that can eliminate scars in the temple complex in the restricted area.

"If you have a chance, find one for her." Xu Qing murmured in his heart, turned and left.

The boy went away, and a trail of snow came out on the road. Behind him, the wind and snow... got bigger.

(End of this chapter)